Cole's previous works include four novels published in England by Robert Hale. The novel Madness Emerging had a distinctly Lovecraftian flavour, set in a small Cornish village (based on one in which he had lived for five years) overrun by an alien force. He then had two young adults fantasy novels published in England, Moorstones and The Sleep of Giants, the first one set on Dartmoor, the second in the South West. A number of fantasy series followed, including The Omaran Saga and Star Requiem, as well as the novelizations of his stories about the Voidal, a S and S character and his elemental sidekick, Elfloq the Familiar. He edited a collection of Lin Carter's short stories about Thongor of Lemuria and the book, Young Thongor. His novel Night of the Heroes envisions various superheroes forming an unlikely union to battle an evil genius. He has had short stories published in the Year's Best Fantasy series (DAW Books) and Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and he was once nominated for the former Balrog Award. His story "Dark Destroyer" was included in the anthology Swords Against the Millennium. His first shared-world novel was The Crimson Talisman, which is set in the realm of Eberron. Cole has worked as a librarian, an administrator in education, and Director of Resources in a large secondary college in the town of Bideford, North Devon, where he lives with his wife Judy, son Sam, and daughter Katia in an old blacksmith's forge.